Coroner Mahyon Talib ordered GM Tan, the counsel for Alex and Luna Johnson, to leave the courtroom, saying he had no business being there if his clients were not going to show up to testify despite being subpoenaed by the prosecution.
Mahyon also declined to accept a letter from the couple explaining their absence.
Tan had earlier apologised, saying his clients were not in the country. He said he had been informed that they would not be testifying today, but declined to confirm if they would be testifying at all in the eight-day inquest.
However, SN Nair, the lawyer holding a watching brief for Smit’s family, said the couple’s testimony was crucial to the inquest as they were the last people to meet with the model before her death on Dec 7.
“It is very irresponsible of them not to come today, but to engage a watching brief lawyer to attend on their behalf.
“Their absence only creates more suspicion in this case, and they now risk being the prime suspects in Smit’s death,” he said.
Adding that the Johnsons had given an exclusive interview to the UK’s Daily Mail, Nair said he had many questions for them as they had made a number of allegations concerning his client.
“They must take the stand. If they are not going to testify, then their lawyer has no business here. He is sitting behind me here and making me uncomfortable,” Nair said.
Mahyon then told Tan to leave, agreeing that he had no business attending the proceedings if he could not even confirm if his clients would be attending future inquest dates.
Smit was found dead on the balcony of a sixth-floor condo unit in Kuala Lumpur last December.
She had been staying with Alex and Luna, an American-Kazakh couple, in their 20th-floor condo in the same building at the time of her death.
The couple, who went out for drinks with Smit the night before her death and visited a nightclub in the Bangsar area, have maintained their innocence.
Police originally classified the case as sudden death, but it was reopened by the Dang Wangi police following claims of foul play by Smit’s family.
They said there was a chance that Smit had been dead long before her fall.
Smit moved to Malaysia when she was three and lived for 13 years in Penang with her paternal grandparents.